ABSTRACT

This chapter explains the final intonation of utterances that are neither syntactically interrogative nor discourse functionally questions: declarative statements, or declarative assertions. Syntactically declarative sentences uttered 'statements', or 'assertions', are prototypically associated with a final fall, in the simple B-utterances, the descriptive label "declarative fall" often found in the literature. Promising approach to assertiveness an interactive property. 'Assertiveness', in the interactive attitudinal sense, all the properties of basic cognitive attitude, affects the communicative sense of an utterance. Terms of Pierrehumbert's model, the declarative fall corresponds to the final tone sequence. The assumption, treat 'continuation dependence' a privative feature associated with the H percent tone. Overlap not predicted, and cannot account for, a non-attitudinal analysis of the overt discourse context. It suggests propositionality at best a prerequisite for the semantic feature correlating with L-.